Department of Environmental Quality
Michelle Henicheck, Senior Wetland Ecologist

http://cmap2.vims.edu/WetCAT/WetCAT_Viewer/WetCAT_VA_2D.html

State Water Control Law (§62.1-44.15:21(B)) requires that there be no net loss of wetland acreage and function. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), in collaboration with the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), designed a Wetland Condition Assessment Tool (WetCAT) to evaluate wetland condition over time.

WetCAT now is used to make better permitting decisions relative to cumulative impacts; to avoid, minimize, and mitigate for wetland losses; to evaluate performance of compensatory mitigation in replacing wetland acreage and function; to integrate wetland condition evaluations into DEQ's Integrated 305b/303d Water Quality reports; and to evaluate the overall effectiveness of our regulatory program in meeting the Commonwealth's no net loss goal.

The data collected from the assessment has been compiled into an online GIS-based wetland data viewer. WetCAT is publicly available on the web as an interactive map for study of non-tidal wetlands. Users can choose overlay such as impaired waters and priority conservation areas over National Wetland Inventory maps. Geoprocessing options allow the user to observe cumulative effects to wetland habitat and water quality, to trace downstream flow path and to visualize contributing watershed.

< Previous | Next >